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Slow
SPARTAN Sarah-184 faces a close brush with death when her AI, Axel, abandons her on , leaving her helplessly slow to the devastation of the departing Guardian. ---- Sarah-184 felt the cold mercury leave her head, felt her armor systems return to her control. Pushing herself off the ground, the Spartan looked around. Everything was happening much faster around her than it should be, the world seemed broken. Blinking and looking around, she spotted the shadow growing at her feet, processed the information, and dove to the side. But the motion was sluggish. Being pushed to the ground again, Sarah realized, the world wasn't faster, she was slower. When she and Axel first interfaced, Sarah was amazed at how much quicker he made her movements in the MJOLNIR armor. As they continued to work together, the Spartan grew used to increased reaction time, until she found herself on edge whenever she separated from the AI. Now was one of those times. But this time, she wasn't prepared for it. Sarah had been deployed to Ursa IV by ONI to investigate the Guardian on the planet. The giant machines were activated across the galaxy, and this was the UNSC’s chance to secure an attack site. However, when Sarah touched down, and reached the Guardian, things turned for the worst. The cold mercury of the AI in her suit was interspersed with a burning pain, like knives digging into her brain. Her armor locked, she was trapped. And then, Axel left. His proximity to the Guardian, his borderline rampancy, promises of a cure. All of these pushed Axel to betray his longest partner. Trap her in her own suit, and just leave. Not a word said. And here she was, laying on the ground, pushing rubble off of her legs as the world collapsed around her. She heard civilians scream, she heard dirt, stone, metal; all collapsing to the ground. She heard the shockwave as the Guardian entered slipspace. But most haunting was what she didn’t hear. Turning and running as the world fell apart around her, her helmet was quiet. No more friendly banter, no more warnings. Sarah relied on Axel’s input to stay alive, she had grown used to, even dependant, on the constant string of suggestions and alerts from her AI partner to keep herself alive. But it wasn’t there anymore. Betrayed by her partner, her friend, the Spartan was left alone, and she was in trouble, running away from an explosion greater than any she had faced before. But she was too slow. The world fell apart around her, far faster than it should have been. Once again, the Spartan found herself under a pile of rubble, lying on the ground and looking at the sky. Everything was falling so quickly around her, but she was slow. A shadow grew on Sarah’s face, the stone landed, a sickening crack as her helmet was snapped back, completing her tomb. Everything went dark. The silence was complete. Sarah felt her breathing slow, matching the rest of her body, and then she faded into unconsciousness, that one word playing over and over in her mind, slow, so dreadfully slow. Category:The Weekly